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Thursday, October 13, 2005
My blog is none of your business!
Another academic blogger is in the news (well, blog news at least) for being denied tenure. Daniel Drezner is apparently one of the most read political science bloggers and is also a professor at the University of Chicago. Although we don't know for sure why he was denied the coveted position of intellectual invincibility, some are speculating that his blog may have had something to do with it. The response from the chair of the political science department at Chicago is ambiguous: “I can assure you it’s no specifically about the blog.”
I’ve never read Drezner’s blog before and don’t know what’s lurking in his archives, but its stories like these that make me second guess my little endeavor here for a brief moment. But then I remember that I really never cared what people think of what I say. A strong position for a writer who doesn't have much controversial things to say in the first place. Since I started Nomadic Thoughts there have been a few stories about academics either coming under fire, being fired, or being denied tenure because of something they write on the internet (blog or otherwise). As I’ve said several times before here, there is a fine line between the appropriate venues in which to voice controversial opinions. On a public website where potential employers can literally read your thoughts it’s not necessarily a good idea to get controversial in the first place. Many academics would disagree with this but most of them are tenured anyway. Even then, I view it a bit inappropriate to publicly acknowledge your affiliation with an institution (either explicitly or someone being able to do a Google search of your name) and flaunt your political views as if you are free to do so. In America there is no such thing as truly free speech no matter what any document proclaims and anyone who hopes to advance in the academy must realize this. Either blog anonymously and spout of all you want or watch what you say. Nomadic Thoughts has never been politicized and even when a bit of my politics seep into a post here and there they’re usually in the context of current anthropological thinking (anthropology can be a highly politicized discipline).
The New York Sun article.
Charles Norman Todd opines, as does John Bruce.
Posted by Will at October 13, 2005 12:42 AM in Academia